It is well-known to use heat sinks as cooling devices to transfer away heat generated in electronic components. As illustrated in FIG. 1, removal of heat from a high power electronic component housed within a device housing 1, is typically achieved by mounting the electronic component on a metal plate heat sink 2 (shown as hatched for clarity), which is generally formed from an aluminium alloy. The electronic component is omitted for clarity, but it can be attached to the heat sink 2 by a variety of well-known methods. The heat sink 2 is in turn attached to the wall of the device housing 1, thus providing a good thermal conduction path from the electronic component to the device housing 1, which then dissipates the heat to the surrounding environment by conduction and/or radiation.
Typically such heat sinks 2 need to be removable from the device housing 1 to facilitate replacement and repair. As shown in FIG. 1, the heat sink 2 is typically secured in the device housing 1 by clamping the heat sink 2 within a slot 3 in the container wall by a screw and wedge device, known commercially as a wedgelock 8. A further empty slot 3 is shown adjacent to the slot 3 to aid understanding, but in practice more than one heat sink 2 may be attached to the device housing 1.
The wedgelock 8 consists of an assembly of a pair of wedges 4, 5 at the top of the slot 3 in the wall of the device housing 3 and a further pair of wedges at the bottom of the slot (not shown, only the top section of the housing being shown for clarity). The top and bottom pairs of wedges are connected by a screwed rod 6, capped with a slotted head 7. Typically the edge of the heat sink 2 is machined to accommodate the wedgelock 8. Rotation of the screwed rod 6 causes wedge 5, and its corresponding wedge at the bottom, to move relative to the other wedge 4 of the pair. Movement of wedge 5, and its corresponding wedge at the bottom, causes the wedges 4, 5 to exert a force against the heat sink 2 and clamp the heat sink 2 to the side of the slot 3 in the wall of the device housing 1. The wedgelock 8 is glued to the heat sink 2 edge. Although wedgelocks 8 generally function satisfactorily in securing heat sinks 2 to device housings, they are expensive to manufacture and the gluing process is time consuming.